Nothing to do with seizures at Karmapa's transit home: Dhumal

Himachal Pradesh chief minister PK Dhumal on Wednesday said the state government has nothing to do with the issue of seizure of foreign currency from a transit home of the 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje as the Centre is investigating the matter.

Dhumal also asked the Centre to reimburse the expenses being incurred by the state government over the security of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa.

"As far as the issue (Karmapa) is concerned, people from the Central Government have come and confiscated the hard disk and other materials. They will let us know the contents after examining them. We cannot say anything now," he told reporters here.

He was asked to comment on the issue of foreign currency being seized from the transit home of the Karmapa.

Police have arrested several people in connection with the seizure and raided several places in the state and Delhi.

During questioning, Karmapa had said he was not aware of the seizure of foreign currency worth over Rs 7.5 crore from the monastery and maintained that Shakti Lama and Gompu Tshering handled the affairs of the trust.

Karmapa's office had also maintained that Karmapa had nothing to do with currency and money was received by way of offerings and donations from disciples coming from different parts of the world, including China and Tibet.

Earlier, in his address at the Chief Ministers' conference, Dhumal said the Centre should "fully reimburse" the expenditure being incurred on security of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa.

"At present only a small part of the expenditure is being reimbursed by the Ministry of External Affairs in case of the Dalai Lama while the entire expenditure of the security of Karmapa is being borne by the state government," he said.

"The state government will set up Tibetan Refugee Unit (TR Unit) in state intelligence department to effectively monitor activities of 2,7542 Tibetan refugees living in the state," he said, according to a release from Himachal Bhawan.

Dhumal also said the state government will set up Tibetan Refugge Cell at Dharamshala in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs.